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So, I recently made a guest-chef appearance at The Kitchen in Amsterdam and I’m pleased to say it was a huge success. It was a sold-out event and quite honestly, it couldn’t have been a better group. Half Canadians and half expats worked together in a fantastic kitchen for 3 hours and produced a phenomenal meal.

Here are the recipes:

A Canadian Thanksgiving Feast

So, as you all know, cooking a big meal like a Thanksgiving dinner is quite a lot of work. The key to avoiding a full-blown meltdown in the kitchen is organisation. Before I cook any big meal, I write out a “game plan” a few days in advance (and a week in advance for Christmas). The “game plan” includes a shopping list (categorized by food type/group so you don’t do circles around the market or grocery store), a prep list for anything that can be made in advance, and a timeline of your cooking day.

I expanded the recipes for our purposes, but I will include recipes here that can be made for 4-6 people. The recipes for each dish are below the timeline. I am not indicating a time to prep and serve the canapes and martinis, you can serve them as you like!

A note on salt: I use Maldon’s Sea Salt because I think it is the best. You can now buy boxes of it at Albert Heijn. It elevates the flavour of food more than normal table salt or even normal sea salt.

The morning before you cook:

– Make the brine in a large, clean container and put the turkey (with the string removed) in it so it’s fully immersed. Cover it and keep in a cool place (outside in cold weather works just fine)
– Tear up the bread for the stuffing and spread this out on a cookie sheet so it dries fully
– Prep and roast and shell your chestnuts (if using fresh)
– Fry, drain and crumble your pancetta and keep covered in fridge
– Make your brown butter for the brussel sprouts and put in fridge

The afternoon before you cook:
– Prep all the veggies (except the potatoes) and put them in ziplock bags
– Make the cranberry sauce and keep covered in the fridge
– Make the pies (I wouldn’t make three for 4-6 people, I’d just make one: pumpkin)

The morning of:
11:00 –> Take the turkey out of its bath and leave it to drain over a rack placed over a sink. Let come to room temperature (one hour)
11:15 –> Prep your potatoes (peel the ones for the roasted ones and leave the skin on for the mashed ones…if doing both)
11:30 –> Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celcius
11:45 –> Melt the butter and maple syrup for the glaze
11:45 –> Quarter 2 large white onions and 4 large carrots and place in a roasting tin, place the turkey on top
12:00 –> Massage the turkey with sea salt and the butter/maple syrup glaze, tent the breasts with foil and put in the oven
12:30 –> Reduce oven temperature to 176 degrees Celcius
13:00 –> Fill a pot with cold water and lots of salt, add your potatoes and bring to the boil (use two pots if you’re doing both potatoes)
13:25–> Check your potatoes, they should be fork-tender (if not, let cook a bit longer)
13:30 –> Drain your potatoes in a colander
13:30 –> Make the butter/onion/herb dressing for the stuffing, coat the bread, and wrap it all up in an aluminum foil package, squish it all together as tight as you can get, and put in oven
14:00 –> Cut open the foil of the stuffing parcel so the top is exposed and can get a bit crusty
14:00 –> Toast the almond slivers for the beans and set aside
14:10 –> Remove foil from breasts and turn oven back up to 220 to get the skin crispy on the turkey
14:10 –> Remove stuffing from oven
14:30 –> Remove turkey from oven (juice in leg joint should be clear) and let rest, covered with foil, for up to an hour
14:30 –> Get your butternut squash in a roasting pan, dot with butter pieces and grate some fresh nutmeg (lots) over top, and season well, put in oven (reduce to 190)
14:45 –> Toss your carrots in olive oil, honey and thyme and put in oven
15:00 –> Carefully lift the turkey onto a serving tray and put the roasting tin with all the juices on the hob to make the gravy
15:00 –> Boil the water for the brussell sprouts and beans
15:10 –> Put brussell sprouts in water
15:15 –> Take the potatoes for the roasties and bash them around in a pot so they’re “fluffy” on the outside
15:15 –> Heat up the goose fat until sizzling in a cast iron grill pan (be careful, wear sleeves if possible here)
15:18 –> Remove squash from oven, dot with goat cheese, put back in oven
15:18 –> Remove carrots from oven
15:20 –> Put beans in boiling water
15:20 –> Check sprouts, if tender, drain and toss in brown butter, chestnuts and pancetta and put under the grill for 3 minutes
15:20 –> Start frying up your roast potatoes and put on kitchen towel to drain
15:23 –> Remove brussel sprouts from under grill
15:23 –> Take butternut squash out of oven
15;25 –> Drain beans, toss in olive oil, lemon and almonds, season well,
15:25 –> Finish off your mash and put over a low flame to warm through
15:30 –> Plate up your roasties, strain your gravy into a serving dish, carve turkey, voila
15:35 –> EAT

First, brown your butter by melting it in a small saucepan and then simmering it until you see the colour turning and lots of small brown flecks. It’ll start smelling very, very good. Careful not to burn it!

Set the melted butter aside while you prep the brussels sprouts by pulling off the outer leaves, trimming off the bottom of the stalk and crossing a small “x” into the bottom with a paring knife

Bring a medium size pot of salted water to a rapid boil and boil sprouts for 4-5 minutes, then put in ice bath/cold water so you retain the colour

While sprouts are cooking, fry up pancetta until crispy and drain on kitchen paper

Drain the sprouts, and toss in the melted butter, chestnuts, and season with salt and pepper

Turn on the grill and place the sprouts underneath for 3-4 minutes until the edges of the sprouts start to brown

Remove from under grill, place in serving dish and crumble pancetta over top

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until berries start to crack/pop

Remove from heat (it will thicken up) and voila, done

The Ultimate Pumpkin Pie (by Bobby Flay)

Note: I have made many, many pumpkin pies and although I would never admit this to my Gramma Joan, this pie by American TV celeb-chef Bobby Flay is THE best one I’ve ever made. I urge you to make it! This recipe is good for one 25cm pie (a cm more or less won’t make a huge difference, anything more will).